Robert Morris Sets Program Record With 11th Horizon League Victory in Upset Over Cleveland St.

Robert Morris (19-8, 11-5 HL) walked into the Wolstein Center to face the the Horizon League’s best team Cleveland St. (18-8, 12-3 HL) in a showdown with massive implications on Saturday night and managed to steal the victory.

In the Colonials’ stunning 68-59 road win over the Vikings, the Colonials notched their program-record 11th league victory and won their first game against a Cleveland St. squad since joining the league in 2020. It also marked the first time winning in Cleveland since 2009.

After the win, the Colonials moved into a tie for second place in the Horizon League standings with their next opponent being Purdue Fort Wayne, a team that is tied with Robert Morris for second place. Not only did it move the Colonials up in the standings, the win over the Vikings vaulted the Colonials in a position to possibly steal the top seed in the Horizon League before the start of the league tournament.

Of course, many things would still need to fall the Colonials way for that to happen as the Vikings are still a game-and-a-half up on Robert Morris in the standings.

The Vikings jumped out to an early 6-2 lead behind two quick buckets from Tahj Staveskie before the Colonials finally started to wake up. A three from Josh Omojafo cut the Vikings lead to just one and then a layup from the Cleveland native, Amarion Dickerson, gave the Colonials their first lead of the night at 7-6.

The Vikings answered the Colonials run with a run for themselves that lasted over three minutes and saw them make 4-of-5 field goal attempts as they scored nine-straight points.

Following the trend of back-and-forth runs, the Colonials forwards begun to heat up as Dickerson and Alvaro Folgueiras each nailed a three to cut back into the Vikings’ lead. Unfortunately for the Colonials, the Vikings continued to build upon their lead and pushed the score out to 24-16 after 13 minutes of game time.

Dickerson and Folgueiras combined for 15 of the Colonials’ first 18 points in the game.

The Colonials cut the score to 24-20 before the Vikings surged again as they went on a 6-0 run to claim a 10-point lead which was their biggest of the night.

Then, just when it looked like the Colonials would slip away against a great opponent on the road, they scored the last six points of the half to go into the break trailing by just four. A big reason that the Vikings led at the half was their big-man, Dylan Arnett who scored 11 of his team-high 16 points in the opening half.

The Colonials managed to tie the game at 38 points a piece early in the second half behind triples from D.J. Smith and Folgueiras before they jumped ahead 43-40 on a three from Ryan Prather Jr. which helped Robert Morris claim their first lead since the score was 7-6.

Following the three-point outburst from the Colonials, the two teams traded buckets over the next few minutes before the Vikings climbed back in front on a dunk from Reece Robinson at the 8:31 mark of the second half.

Although Robinson’s dunk made the score 49-48 in favor of Cleveland St., the Colonials defenders dug in as they held the Vikings offense to just four points over the next 7:51 over the game. During that span, the Colonials often turned good defense into offensive points as they outscored the Vikings 16-4 over that span.

The Colonials capped the run off with an alley-oop slam from Dickerson which pushed their lead to 64-53 with just over a minute-and-a-half left in the game. Still with a sliver of a chance, the Vikings cut the deficit to single-digits near the one-minute mark but a clutch layup 13 seconds later by Omojafo all but sealed the game.

The Colonials defense stood the tallest the in the second half as they limited Arnett to just five points in the period but more impressively, they forced a horrendous three-point shooting half from the entire Cleveland St. team as they went 0-of-10 from that range in the closing half.

The Colonials were led by the Cleveland native’s game-high 21 points. Dickerson added six rebounds and two blocks in his hometown “revenge” game. Folgueiras added his 11th double-double of the season as he posted 18 points on an efficient 6-of-7 shooting night and 10 rebounds.

Omojafo had his best game in weeks for the Colonials in Saturday’s win as he finished with 12 points on a 4-of-6 shooting night.

Robert Morris won due to their defensive efforts but the Colonials also excelled on the boards in the win over the Vikings. They won the rebounding battle 39-32 with a 16-9 advantage in the offensive rebound department. Those offensive boards led the Colonials to outscore the Vikings 13-10 in second chances points.

The Colonials return home to host Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday in what is likely the biggest game in recent history for the Robert Morris men’s basketball program. A win over the Mastodons would clinch the first 20-win season for the Colonials since the 2019 season.

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